Hammerman – Was That Real?

Yep, MC Hammer had a cartoon show. You can’t touch this…but who would want to? The Nostalgia Critic looks at the early 1990’s cartoon Hammerman, and asks Was That Real?

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About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

148 comments

  1. I write FIIIIIIIIIIIRST! I’m the first one to comment one this videoh-oh. Now, everybody knows!

  2. ThatManWithTheHeadband12

    …Couldn’t finish the review in time? Awwww

  3. I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of MC Hammer, but I remember he was HUGE in the early 90’s. I briefly remember the commercials for this cartoon, but never watched it… errrr haven’t touched it!

    Hammer time!

  4. Oh snap! They got all the things black kids like: graffiti, rap, and shoes.

  5. I actually remember this show. After two and half decades, the nightmare has again been unleashed! Although … now that I think about it, maybe that’s where my love of Salvidor Dalí came from?

  6. Give me that let’s play!

  7. What is up with your new wall? Is it a tradition that you change the background color everyyear?

  8. Wow, I had NO idea. 😀 I miss stupid rap. 🙁

    I might check out Dena.

  9. Pretty sure I saw this cartoon at least once as a kid, definitely remember the live action segment with Hammer sitting with the kids. There was also a New Kids on the Block cartoon, which I remember being terrible. Even as a 7 year old I had standards.

  10. WOW! Completely forgot about that doll.

  11. Before commercials, they should have said “Just for a minute let’s go to comer. cial. cial. cial. cial. yeah.”

  12. Another week for the review, huh? Well it better be good and not another review like Pixels or Jurassic World with a movie still out in theaters.

  13. Oh my God, the cheese factor appears strong with this one. I can’t believe that I was born the year this aired… There’s also another cartoon with an at-the-time big star that was WAY more subtle with its messages, and it involved teenage monsters (too bad it can’t be WTR’d this October…).

    And get this, there was also a cartoon based around Little Shop of Horrors that aired in the exact same block as Hammerman, and yes, it was equally as weird and awkwardly animated.

  14. I’m suddenly reminded of Weird Al’s Hammer parody: Can’t Watch This

    Also, I can’t wait for that let’s play crossover video.

  15. MC Hammer wasn’t just huge. He was stupidly huge. “Can’t touch this was everywhere”, Hammer was in all the commercials, everyone had his album. And yes, there was this cartoon.

    It was sorta amazing how quickly he disappeared though. It was like one day you saw MC Hammer at least two dozen times, literally everywhere, the next day just… gone. Even “can’t touch this” jokes just died off instantly. Crazy.

    • That’s because there is a distinct cultural break that happens at the start of the 90’s, specifically the second half of 1991, especially in regards to music. The ascendancy of grunge rock and gangsta rap represented a shift towards harder sounds that were seen as more gritty, angst driven and, for lack of a better word, authentic. Glitzy, more pop oriented artists had a hard time navigating the chage, especially those that emerged at the tail end of the 80’s and the first year and a half-ish of the 90’s (established artists like Michael Jackson and Prince fared a bit better, but even their popularity to a hit). MC Hammer had the misfortune of reaching his peak fame just as a new wave was about to roll in. Even by the fall of 91, when Hammerman debuted, he was starting to look out of step. And by the next year, “2 Legit 2 Quit” was running on MTV along side tracks like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Today Was a Good Day,” and looking just corny and obsolete in comparison.

  16. I’m just going out on a limb and saying that he filmed this editorial at a con…

    • Or he’s just roommates with the Nerd now.

      • Seeing that he’s with the nerd….I wonder….is the review or the review after going to have the Nerd in it…I mean, stuff like this is usually a foreshadowing of something else…and if so, what is the nerd going to do…or is this a foreshadowing of a future James and Mike Mondays with Doug Walker

  17. So, that a bad version of Fat Albert then?

    They seem to have left out the majority of the inbetween animations.

    Well, technically if you can do something with a popular name you should do it. Only requirement should be that you actually make it good.

  18. I’d like to see a WTR for “Free Willy: The Series” or “Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Series”. Have you wondered what Free Willy would be like if the whale could talk without hurting your ears? Don’t watch this show cause it still hurts your ears but hey at least you can understand what he says…

    No I take that back you don’t want to hear what he says, this show makes Captain Planet look like Film Noir.

  19. Take it away, Bill Hicks! *Satan sounds*

  20. Whats sad, is that I kinda remember this show, but literally nothing about it. Largely the Hammerman theme and even that at all. I do not remember it being good, but never realized it was so lazy and bad the show actually was.

    From what I can tell, it was best that I forgot this show existed.

  21. Hah, I remember that HammerMan cartoon existing & probably watched just an episode or two, but they were just vague blurs of my memories. I know that it aired around the tail-end of Captain N & Super Mario Bros 3’s run.

    I want to see a WTR of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures!

  22. Never heard of he show before. Do the magic shoes go on over his regular shoes?

  23. The reason they didn’t animate to the edge in the intro is because of the old ” safe zone “.
    It’s useless now.. but before with crt tv’s, they did not show all the way out to the edge.
    At the end of the crt screens.. with the massive 100hz tv’s. Those began to show the entire picture.

    • While true, most organizations still animated it all the way anyways, in case your TV was different. There’s really no downside, as long as you make sure there’s nothing important over there.

      It’s not like video games, where they would leave it blank to save processing power.

  24. Oh god, they showed this in the UK too! I’d completely forgotten until the magic shoes bit when a rush of disappointing memories flooded back. Jesus Christ, CBBC produced its own shows too…they had plenty of other options to fill the after-school slots and they went with…THIS?!?

    Ok, Wikipedia tells me I’m wrong about this but dammit I know I saw this show somewhere!

    • THE CINEMATIC MIND

      On the plus side at least our shows were different than what America was doing from the 1960’s early 2000’s. Seriously some of our shows were dark and creepy, but incredibly unique, Doug would be terrified from them!

    • I don’t think it was on CBBC, I remember seeing it on Channel 4… and Channel 4 showing kids programs feels a little odd these days.

  25. well than i was spared in my country because i never heard that on our morning cartoon shows

  26. THE CINEMATIC MIND

    Now that was easily a bad product of the time. NNNNNEEEERRRDDD! Nice to see him briefly!

  27. I was wondering that as well. Damn, is this show bad. It’s weird, because usually you review something on WTR that has at least some redeeming features. Then again, I guess this does too. That’s really amazing with what they’re doing with the water. It’s probably your most heartfelt shoutout yet!

  28. I’ll admit, I saw it.

  29. Can you please do a Nostalgia Critic review on Freddie As F.R.O.7?

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